The popularity of Internet communities (IC) has given rise to a new type of personal identity. Members of ICs often generate themselves a pseudo-identity that is relevant only within each respective IC and identified by a pseudonym. By contributing to the discussions and communication within the community they earn credibility and respect for their community identity: it becomes an asset However, disclosing one's true identity in the Internet has, unfortunately, proven hazardous because of the inherent nature of Internet communities, i.e. worldwide visibility and usually unrestricted access for viewing the communications.
Before the ICs became such a widely adopted communication culture in the Internet, there has been no need to provide enhanced impersonal communication facilities in the field of telecommunications and the only means for hiding the true identity has been total anonymity either by hiding the calling subscriber's address/number or by hiding the subscriber data related to the calling subscriber's number.
To enable voice calls and SMS messaging between mobile users and Internet communication service clients or web clients, mechanisms have been proposed which use temporary numbers in order to route a communication setup signalling through a server where the circuit switched call setup signalling is converted into voice over IP (VoIP) signalling and forwarded towards the Internet communication service domains. This however requires heavy integration with the Internet communication service's infrastructure.